Russian electronics and IT holding, Sitronics, has posted a 1Q 2009 Net loss of $40.3 million under U.S. GAAP.

The Net Result compares with the Net Loss of $8.2 million posted for 1Q 2008, with 1Q 2009 OIBDA coming in at minus $3.7 million, compared with a positive OIBDA of $20.6 million for 1Q 2008, on the back of a more than 50% slump in Revenues to $214.9 million.

Sitronics noted that the Net result reflected a $20.8 million non cash foreign exchange hit, coupled with a revenue slump brought about by reduced or deferred client spending in the wake of Russia’s economic downturn.

Despite this Sergey Aslanian, President of Sitronics was upbeat about the volume of new orders signed during the quarter, forecasting that OIBDA for FY 2009 and 2Q 2009 would be positive.

“The revenue decline in the first quarter reflected the tough market conditions, but was accentuated by the deferring of a number of major client projects until later in the year. There is no change to our overall market outlook and we do expect to be OIBDA profitable in both the second quarter and for the full year. Not only have we won over US$ 362 million of new contracts since the beginning of the year, but we have also successfully refinanced or extended approximately US$ 220 million of short term debt.”